‘Durham County’ bleak, pretentious

The Ion Network, best known for broadcasting movies, introduces the new Canadian-produced drama “Durham County” (9 p.m., Ion).

To call “Durham” dark is the understatement of the year. I’ve seen more violent shows and more disturbing series, but this import about “a place full of secrets” strains to set some new bleak benchmark.

In the first scene, Det. Sweeney (Hugh Dillon) drives his family from Toronto to a new home, leaving the city after his partner’s murder. During the drive, his wife, Audrey (Helene Joy), vomits from her chemotherapy. The smell makes their miserable teenage daughter, Sadie (Laurence Leboeuf), even more miserable. For reasons never quite explained, the youngest daughter spends all of her time beneath a giant mask of a Japanese anime character. Later, she finds a similarly disguised child, and they share disturbing secrets about the suicide that took place in the Sweeney’s house just before they moved in.

Their new home is located in a faceless, sterile development surrounded by high-tension wires and a chemical plant. Seriously, it makes the development in “Poltergeist” look like the sunny setting of an Olive Garden commercial. This place is grim.

Their neighbor Ray (Justin Louis) is a sadistic bully whom Sweeney knows and hates from his school days. Ray, a brooding, frustrated jock, oppresses his gorgeous wife and talented son. And that’s the least of his horrible traits.

“Durham” clearly wants to push some kind of envelope but the cascade of miserable rushes by without any of the respite, humanity or humor that characterize edgy series like “The Sopranos,” “The Shield” and “Rescue Me.” Like a pretentious teen, it seems to think being depressed and angst-ridden makes it interesting. We know better.